March 2016 Archives

One measure of the success of a song is the number of cover versions it spawns. A great example is the multi-Grammy-winning Uptown Funk. I didn't bother getting an exact count, but the iTunes Store shows page after page of remakes (including inexplicable ukulele and violin renditions, and multiple acapella arrangements by college groups) of the song that's only about eighteen months old.

In every instance, the covers of Uptown Funk are inferior (in my opinion) to the original, but that's not always true. Although purists might rightfully disagree, I find that remakes of older pop and rock songs are often better than the originals, or at least successful in reinvigorating tunes that have grown tiresome through repetition. In some cases, it's because of superior talent by the new artist; in others, modern production techniques (or changing tastes) give the cover an edge.

Here's a list of ten very recognizable songs that I think have benefitted by new treatment. Not every one is necessarily an improvement, but they all breathe new life into the original.

(Note: I was almost through with this post before I discovered the amazing SecondHandSongs website, which is to cover songs what IMDB is to movies. I could have saved a lot of time had I known about it sooner.)

Love Potion Number 9 by Neil Diamond (original - The Clovers): I have no clue as to why Neil Diamond would want to remake this song three decades after The Searchers made it into a big hit (and their version was a cover of the original 1959 recording). Perhaps it was a favorite from his youth. Regardless, Diamond's version is a less cartoonish/more adultish rendering.

Spooky by Atlanta Rhythm Section (original - The Classics IV): This remake has perhaps a bit more logic to it, in that James Cobb was a co-writer, as well as a member of both The Classics IV and the ARS. The redo is almost twice as long as the original, and both share a smooth jazz feel.

Sunshine of Your Love by Chaz DePaolo (original - Cream): As long as we're in the smooth jazz neighborhood, this version by American blues guitarist DePaolo ratchets the original version down a few notches without completing ignoring its rock roots. I don't know who's doing the singing, but Eric Clapton has nothing on her in the vocals department.

All About That Bass by Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox (original - Meghan Trainor): You'd be hard pressed to find a more sophisticated makeover than the one Postmodern Jukebox applies to Trainor's mega-debut song. Now, trust me when I tell you that I was attracted to this remake before I saw the accompanying video (with the attractive female singers who manage to claim that they're "no size 2" without bursting into laughter).

Gentle on My Mind by The Band Perry (original - Glen Campbell): It takes a lot of confidence to remake one of the most successful songs in popular music history, but youngsters that comprise The Band Perry do an admirable job of making it their own while still paying tribute to the original. Wikipedia claims that more than 300 different artists have covered this song, but I've not heard one I like better than this. (For some very interesting insight to the history of the original, I highly recommend the documentary film The Wrecking Crew, which profiles the amazing studio musicians that were instrumental to the success of many of the most recognizable songs in American history. Glen Campbell was one of them.)

Eleanor Rigby by Joshua Bell & Frankie Moreno (original - The Beatles): Joshua Bell is likely a familiar name, but Frankie Moreno (not to be confused with Frank Marino, a female impersonator) is probably less so. Moreno was the house act at the Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas for a few years; he's now a touring musician and a staple in venues around Vegas and is one of the most dynamic performers working today. He and Bell team up to enhance the already classical vibes (the original arrangement takes its cue from Vivaldi) of one of the Beatles' most well-known ballads.

She's Not There by Santana (original - The Zombies): The Zombies made this a big hit in 1964, and Santana recycled it into another hit in 1977. The live version of this song is one of the highlights of a Santana concert, if you're fortunate enough to be present when they play it.

Gotta Serve Somebody by Tommy Castro (original - Bob Dylan): Dylan won a Grammy for this song in 1980, and it has the added recommendation of really making John Lennon mad for its religious themes. Castro added his bluesy interpretation in 2009.

Kiss by Señor Coconut (original - Prince): Prince is a musical genius, regardless of what he chooses to call himself, and his version of Kiss is basically flawless. What attracts me to this cover is the Latin flair that Uwe Schmidt (si, el Señor es Deutscher) puts on the song, and you know what a sucker I am for Latin music.

Good Lovin' by The Grateful Dead (original - The Olympics): OK, I saw you do that double-take. No, The Young Rascals did not record the original version of this song; they were a year late to the party after The Olympics released it in 1964. The Rascals' version is the best known, of course, but I'm kinda diggin' the Dead's 1978 samba spin. (There's that Latin beat again.)

Bonus! The Sound of Silence by Disturbed (original - Simon & Garfunkle): I'm late to the party on this one, as I just discovered this version. Sure, it was recorded last year, but the video below has more than 20 million views, so unless some of you are serious Disturbed fans, a lot of folks know about this version. Whether they recognize that the song title isn't exactly the same as the 1964 original is probably another question, albeit completely irrelevant.

Anyway, this choice deserves a bit more explanation, because it has a really interesting back story. Disturbed is a metal band - not usually my musical cup of tea - and the lead singer, David Draiman, looks and sounds the part, because stereotypes. What I did not know is that he's Jewish and was for a time in training as a hazan or cantor (a director of liturgical prayer, chants, and songs in a synagogue). In a musical genre that often attracts neo-Nazi skinheads, he's aggressively pro-Israel and won't back down when confronted with anti-Semitism.

My brilliant, funny (and much younger) cousin Wendy does a weekly Facebook post in which she reviews a song - usually after having a glass of wine - that's meaningful to her in some way at that specific moment. I'd point you to the posts but they're only for her friends and she doesn't know you that well. (I have threatened to repost her articles on these pages, since she refuses to blog them, due to some excuse having to do with raising three young sons or some such nonsense.) Anyway, I'm inspired by her to start doing some more music blogging, and I'm starting south of the border.

I've always had a fondness for Latin-flavored music, but it's been intensified over the past decade during which MLB and I started dancing. The Latin dances - primarily cha cha and rumba, but also samba and salsa (although we're not very good at them) are our favorite ballroom steps, and so we have a corresponding attraction to the music.

So, the following are the ten songs I'd take with me to a desert island with a dance floor located off the coast of Mexico (or somewhere in the Caribbean; my net casts pretty wide), in no particular order.

Accion y Reaccion by Thalía: Sometimes referred to as "the Queen of Latin pop," Thalía is a Mexican singer, songwriter, and more. This song is a celebration of what we have in common, regardless of our cultural differences. If this catchy song doesn't make you want to learn to speak Spanish, nothing will.

Smooth by Santana and Rob Thomas: Some of the songs in this list might be unfamiliar to you, but this won't be one of them, unless you've been living in a cave in the Ozarks for the past twenty years. According to this Wikipedia article, Smooth is the second most successful song in history (trailing only Chubby Checker's The Twist, which isn't Latin, AFAIK), as ranked by Billboard. It's also an absolutely flawless rumba/cha cha number.

Radio Sol by Mo' Horizons: You know what I like about Mo' Horizons (besides their musical talent)? They're not Latin, or from the Caribbean...they're German. You'll often find their tracks on those funky cardboard-enclosed "world music" CDs in little shops in Santa Fe and Marfa, and they'll invariably bring a smile to your face. I don't know what Radio Sol is about; heck, I don't even know what language it's in. And, of course, I don't care, because it evokes great memories of dive trips to the Lesser Antilles from back when international flying wasn't such a royal pain.

Tango by Jaci Velasquez: If you're thinking that name rings a bell, it may be that you know Velasquez from her very successful career as a contemporary Christian musician, where she's received seven Dove Awards. But she's also a successful Latin crossover artist, singing in both Spanish and English, and this is one of my favorites (so much that I used it as the soundtrack to a video I created and posted here four years ago). But, even though the title says otherwise, this is not a tango; it works better as a slow cha cha.

Malagueña Salerosa by Chingon: This is a seventy year old song made more popular by its inclusion in the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino's 2004 movie, Kill Bill: Vol. 2. Texas musician and filmmaker Robert Rodriguez scored the movie, and also played guitar in the all-star band he assembled primarily to create music for movie soundtracks. The song is the epitome of dramatic, passionate Latin music, and it's especially meaningful to me because we got to hear it performed live by Del Castillo in Fredericksburg at the Crossroads Saloon. Basically, Del Castillo is Chingon, with the addition of Robert Rodriguez. (More about Del Castillo below.)

Dance in the Moonlight by The Mavericks: I have a love/hate relationship with this catchy little samba. I hate it because every time I hear it, it becomes an earworm that I can't shake for literally days. This is another song that we got to hear performed live when The Mavericks came to Midland a couple of years ago. It was a terribly frustrating concert...because there's no place to dance, and it's difficult to sit still when the musicians get wound up.

So Nice (Summer Samba) by Bebel Gilberto: This is another older song (it was written in 1964, which doesn't seem that old to me, but I realize it's ancient history to some of you); this version was recorded in 2000 by the Brazilian singer Bebel Gilberto. This is another song with a misleading title; it's a bossa nova, not a samba, which is perhaps a distinction without a difference to most of us. Regardless, it's chill in every important sense.

I Never Cared for You by Del Castillo with Willie Nelson: Willie Nelson wrote and recorded this song in 1964, but he says that this version recorded with Del Castillo in 2006 is his favorite. The Del Castillo brothers (one of which, by the way, was a biomedical science major at Texas A&M) provide the intricate guitar stylings that reinforce the Latin flavor, and Alex Ruiz - who is no longer with the band - shares vocalist duties with Nelson. (Ruiz is also the singer on Malagueña Salerosa, listed above.)

Quizás, quizás, quizás by Andrea Bocelli and Jennifer Lopez: Again, we reach back in musical history to retrieve a classic. This song - the title to which translates to "perhaps, perhaps, perhaps" - was written in the 1940s and has been covered many times since. Doris Day did a winsome English version of the song in 1964, but there's just something about the Spanish version that elevates the romance factor of the rumba beat. Bocelli and J-Lo bring exactly the right mix of emotions to a classic.

She Bangs by Ricky Martin: We don't need to dwell on the irony of Ricky singing this particular song; we only need to focus on the insistent driving beat that makes this a cha cha that inevitably results in a sweat-soaked, oxygen-deprived post-dance glow. Well, just take my word for it.

I hate to alarm you, but we have a packaging crisis in the United States. As in...too much of it. This became obvious yesterday upon the arrival of two items we had ordered.

Exhibit A is a dress that MLB purchased from the website of a well-known clothier. Here's the box in which it was shipped (I included her to give you a sense of scale):

Now, I could understand this kind of packaging if she had ordered, say, a suit of medieval armor, or if she starred in a reality show on Spike TV entitled Gargantuan and Sexy, but in truth it was a little filmy dance dress, and she qualifies for only part of that imaginary TV series. Anyway, I have no idea what the shipper was thinking. Perhaps they had run short of dress-sized boxes. Perhaps they were simply responding to a perceived "bigger = more valuable" philosophy that accompanies our tendency to super-size our consumption. Or, more likely, the guy in the shipping department just grabbed the closest box.

Exhibit B came in the form of a Nutribullet (I know; that's a topic for another discussion) that we ordered from Wal-Mart. Here's how the less-than-two-feet-tall device was packaged:

In this case, the shipping department employee was either a big fan of matryoshka dolls, or really into recursion. Or, we should not completely discount that he was influenced by a recent meal of turducken. Anyway, while Nutribullet is obviously proud of its product (as evidenced by what they charge for it), packaging it more securely than a shipment of weapons-grade plutonium seems a bit excessive.

And speaking of excessive, after she unpacked the boxes, MLB spoke of the largest box being "filled with intestines." I was simultaneously intrigued and repulsed, but here's what she was referring to:

I admit to being impressed that someone was actually able to get anything else into the Master Box™ along with that air-filled serpent. I was less impressed with the effort it took to deflate each one of those little pillows so I could get them into a trash can. It was much less satisfying than bubble wrap.

Boxing Day is a big deal in Canada; perhaps the US needs to start observing an Unboxing Day.

Note: I put this post into the "Design" category, because packaging engineering is a real thing. Anyone who's ever struggled to open a box of cereal knows that the right design makes a big difference.